Tristine RainerBesprekingen

This book had a big impact on my and my journaling ways back in my late teens and early twenties.

The New Diary by Trisline Rainer was published in 1978 so it's a bit dated in places but ok, I admit it, it was the same price as a cup of coffee including postage also many of the reviews of other modern books on journal writing referred to this book.

This book states that is will explore the usage of what she calls “the new diary” to assist in self-guidance and expanded creativity using the work of Carl Jung, Marion Milner, Ira Progoff and Anaïs Nin (with whom she had a friendship with for seven years). I think she accomplished this goal first she discussed the four main ways of using the diary, catharsis, description, free intuitive writing and reflection. She then goes on to discuss more specific techniques for when the basic four are not getting to the crux of the problem, and here we go down a rabbit hole into psychobabble,

Much of the writing is about communicating with the subconscious and other aspects of Jungian psychology, which may turn readers off. Many of the writing devices I can never see myself using, such as having dialogues, or written conversations with an emotion but other may find that useful.

What makes this author uniquely qualified to write on this topic is primarily as she has kept a diary for many years, and uses many of her own diary entries as examples. Also her friendship with Anaïs Nin may well have given her insights into the woman who wrote the famous diaries.

My least favorite part of the book was the chapter on dreams, I guess I am not a the new diary 2great believer in the Jungian theories into the importance of our nighttime wanderings so it left me cold.

In the end I did grow weary of the repetition and I skimmed the last three chapters.

Overall enjoyed reading this book and can see I may well make use of several of the more specific techniques at some point in my life. I found the author easy to relate to but I do wish she used the work of Anaïs Nin less but I think the author was very inspired by her life and work and the friendship may have been the reason why she started journaling and hence eventually write this book.

Check out my new book blog Engrossed in a Good Book .

This book had a big impact on my and my journaling ways back in my late teens and early twenties.

https://msarki.tumblr.com/post/163284976113/apprenticed-to-venus-my-secret-life-...

…In fact, for me, having come of age in the 1950’s, a man taking you while you were helpless was a secret fantasy. One where I could have pleasure without guilt, as when I imagined myself being bound to a factory conveyor belt and carried on it to a man like nougat centers to the chocolate dip—moving toward desire free of volition.

Tristine Rainer, an academic professor in her later years, now confesses her rapturous secret life at once riveting and hinged on a sensuality deemed as generally too dangerous. But Rainer today must not care what most of us think and perhaps she feels strongly about the importance of her subject. In the early sixties Anaïs Nin had become her mentor as Rainer signed on as confidant. The story of their relationship reveals in greater detail what Nin has previously confessed to in her diaries. This is the backstory, and it offers a deeper glimpse, or even perhaps a more honest gaze, into what impelled Nin to behave in ways that are still, in some holy circles, unacceptable today. The sexually liberated woman is still at risk for condemnation. Anaïs Nin was either a precursor to the women’s movement, or perhaps, in degrees, a founding mother of it. Having to wait thirty years to publish this revealing memoir due to Nin’s second husband remaining alive, this confession proves to be graciously insightful as well as an interesting read.

Last week, I was scouring the library for resource books on Memoir. I didn't come up with much beyond the handful I'd already dug through, but later the same night, while re-shelving my own books in our new office, I tripped over "Your Life As Story".

It's one of the books I bought while researching my thesis on Therapeutic Writing a decade ago and the spine is familiar as any other on my shelf, but I haven't cracked it since September of 2002. I picked up the book, flipped through it and laughed. If I'd found it in the library, I'd have declared it “Exactly what I was looking for!” and clutched it to my chest while running for the check-out line. Instead, it was waiting casually to be remembered and rescued from deep shelves five feet from where I sleep.

Whole sections on structure and craft, were of little interest to me at the time as I was focused on the therapeutic elements of writing but are now incredibly helpful. Chapters on Essential Elements, Voice and the Anatomy of a Scene give clear and solid direction. Chapter Seven, titled “Tricks Memory Plays on You and Tricks You Can Play on It” is especially brilliant.

“If you tend towards the bright memory clichés of a Pollyanna, it means going deeper and being more honest about negative feelings. If you tend toward melancholia, it means looking for pleasant memories to mix with the dark.”

I have come to realize over the last few months that my story is one which cannot be told without lightness and laughter.I rework passages endlessly to find the humor and humanity in them. I dig through memories and photos and conversations to find the happy … the silly … and the sweet.”

Thumbing through Your Life As Story, I come across highlighted sections which I quoted in my thesis:

“It is by making meaning out of memory that one is healed, whether through therapy, life, journal writing or autobiographic writing. That meaning need not be religious, spiritual or psychological; it can be philosophic or aesthetic. Sometimes the only meaning one can find in certain events is aesthetic, the ability to make something beautifully crafted out of what in life was arbitrary, ugly or painful.”

Re-reading those passages brings a little of that fire back to my belly as I wholly agree with and consider myself living proof of the therapeutic value of writing. An obvious example of that is a piece titled "Parting", which I wrote about the process of agreeing to donate my daughter's organs as she lay dying in the room across the hall. Clearly a horrible experience and dreadful subject matter, but immeasurably healing to write out. Even better though is being able to craft those raw emotions into a story whose message is one of hope.

I still swear by Therapeutic Writing, but I am cognizant of the fact that there is chasm between pure Writing Therapy and writing Life as Story. What's difficult, is finding resources and guidance that honors both traditions, offers useful information and provides the necessary direction. In this book, Tristine Rainer book does all of that. I am ashamed to have ignored it for so long.

Really useful survey of why/how people keep journals, with plenty of food for thought to try at home...

Inspiring...that is the first word that comes to mind when I think about 'The New Diary: How to Use a Journal for Self-Guidance and Expanded Creativity.' I have to admit that I've kept journals all my life...but only sporadically...this book has really helped me to understand ALL that a journal can be and how wonderfully helpful, illuminating, and creative it may become if used in a "new" way..."new" in this instance means getting away from the "calendar" or methodical recording that goes on in most journals...which is how most of us were originally taught to keep our diaries/journals.
I think that this is a FANTASTIC book for beginners (and well beyond) -- especially those who journal only sporadically or repeatedly "give up" and throw out journals, feeling like we've failed at it...The New Diary will give you a NEW perspective!! With this book, you'll learn HOW to journal effectively -- what it really means, changing your perceptions of how it "should" be done...allowing you to use it more effectively in discovering yourself!!

I must say that when I ordered this book, I had NO idea that it was originally published in 1978...if I had known that I would NOT have ordered it...but, as it turns out, this was a VERY fortuitous oversight on my part!! The New Diary defiantly holds up 20+ years later!!! There is a rather timeless quality about the information found here and and even greater timeless quality to the way in which it is presented!! The "seven special techniques" are very helpful (and used time and again -- in their own special ways -- in various other books on Journaling)...these are techniques that seem perfectly logical and "mundane..." but they are in fact easily overlooked as journaling techniques by those of us bound to outdated styles of journal keeping -- using The New Diary as a reference once you've read it through will help you keep your journaling "fresh" --allowing you to get the most benefit from it!!

I also like what you DON'T get in The New Diary!! What you don't get here is a forced, stylized, and/or a pre-packaged journal that forces you to do it one way and one way only...this book allows you to get what YOU need out of the experience, rather than being told what you need and how someone else thinks you should do it!! All you get here (and it's MORE than adequate) is good, solid information which provides you with an equally solid foundation upon which you can develop your journaling skills!!

I really love how the author stresses the integration of ALL aspects of your life into your journaling -- using self-reflection and observation as a means to enrich journal writing!!

Finally...the examples given here of various journals -- allowing us to "see" exactly how a technique can be used...this was EXTREMELY helpful both while I was reading the book, as well as when I went back to it as a reference!!

I give The New Diary an A+ for content and usability...I think it will continue to be one of THE best resources on journaling for another 20 years!!

I Give it a B+ for price...it has a LIST price of 14.95...I got it from Amazon for 10.47...I much preferred paying the latter...if I'd spotted this at my local book store, I probably would have passed it up for something a little less expensive -- this was prior to reading it...now that I've read it and used it....I'd pay the 14.95 in a heart beat!!